winter weather driving me bonkers!

[Jeroen Wijnands]

Saturday my wife took the kids to Disney's latest leaving me with an expected free two hours. So I figured time to get some fresh air and some more practice with my latest toy, a sigma 150-500. Found a bird hide with, among other things, a good view of a common merganser putting on a preening show. Now this was around noon but I was at iso 1600 and struggling to keep my shutter speed above 1/200. I think because of the shutter speed and the high iso I ended up with shots that were, to say the least, somewhat less than spectacular.

Additionally, how do you expose properly for these birds? I either blow the highlights on the body or loose a lot of detail on the head.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/wijnands/DSC_4268c.jpg

[Geoff Warnock]

I sympathise entirely with the grey European weather, which hasn't let up for months! I too have been forced to use iso up to 2000 in the middle of the day, wide open on a lens that is much better stopped down and with barely enough shutter speed anyway.

[Charles Glatzer]

Push the highlights to just before clipping/blinking. This will make the dark head lighter, thereafter select the whites in post-production (Select > Color Range) and extract all the detail in highlights as much as possible. Note- on flat overcast days there will not be a lot of detail rendered in white areas (no shadows). NIK's Tonal Contrast filter is very good for revealing all the detail captured. You will be amazed!

Chas